West Hill

As a former student that attended this high school, I can say that the education in which I received here was beyond satisfactory. Not only did this school more than prepare me for the college environment, but Padua Academy also allowed me to grow into a confident and capable leader for my future education. There are numerous good things about this school: the friendly staff, the amount of time and effort the teachers put into teaching their students, and the shaping of young girls into intelligent and powerful young women. While there were unquestionably good parts about Padua Academy, like other schools, the all-girls learning establishment certainly had its downsides. One in which I encountered was the cliqueyness of some of the girls, most notably with the younger grades in my time there. If you did not meet the "ideal standard" or play a popular sport, mainly cheerleading and volleyball, you were as I call it, "socially segregated" by most of the other girls. However, this mostly disappears typically around Junior year, at that point the only thing that most girls are focused on is graduation and college applications. The next unsatisfactory thing I would say about this school is the lack of ADA accommodations and the way the school handles mental illness. In my time there, the administration, and sometimes the students, would treat my illness as if it was a joke. I was often told that my illness was all in my head, that I needed to learn to stop overreacting so much and learn to be more outgoing. Because of this, I would often see another person within the school to talk about my problems. In all honesty, the person I chose was more helpful for me than the person that I was assigned to. So yes, more than prepared me for the college environment (college is a cakewalk compared to this school) as well as gearing me towards both adult life and a life of service. I have heard that a lot of the amazing teachers that make Padua so astounding are beginning to leave, and I surely do not hope it's affecting the school in any negative way. While the school seriously needs to work on some crucial factors such as ADA, the seriousness of mental illness, and the "social segregation" thing with its younger students, if you are looking for a quality education that will guarantee a successful young lady, Padua Academy is the definite way to go.